Word: hariri
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Syrian first couple were personae non grata in Western capitals. The U.S., which accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism, led an effort to isolate the country diplomatically and economically. And in a rare instance of Franco-American harmony, France had its own grudge against Syria: the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister and close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac, an act for which many in the West blamed Syria...
Syria is still considered the chief suspect in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister who was killed in a truck bomb explosion in February 2005. An international tribunal is being established to try Hariri's killers and the perpetrators of several other assassinations since then. Syria has denied involvement in the deaths and argues that the tribunal is nothing more than a political weapon wielded by the U.S. Still, few doubt that fences need to be mended between Lebanon and Syria, however difficult that may prove: in their 60 or so years of independent existence...
...asking the U.N. Security Council for an extension of the mandate of his probe, investigator Daniel Bellemare said recently that evidence pointed to a "criminal network" being responsible for the "politically motivated" killing of Hariri. The network had pre-existed Hariri's murder, Bellemare said, and it continued to exist for some period afterward...
...Following the announcement, Damascus expressed satisfaction that the investigator had not named Syria as explicitly behind the killing. Top members of the regime have long been widely viewed as suspects - an allegation Damascus has always denied. The Syrian government also accused the U.S. and its allies of using the Hariri inquiry as a tool to pressure Damascus, along with a series of unilateral sanctions recently imposed by Washington on key figures linked to the regime...
...Hariri's 2005 assassination proved to be a major turning point in Lebanese politics, setting the stage for the current stalemate as the U.S.-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition are unable to agree on a new President. Following the murder, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut and other cities to demand the withdrawal of the Syrian troops that had been garrisoned in the country for decades, as Damascus acted as the dominant influence in Lebanese politics. Despite the withdrawal of its troops and the creation of the pro-Western government, Syria has continued...